Thank You, Luke
by Bloody Phantom
Summary: At the end of ROTJ, Luke doesn't only see Anakin, Yoda, and Ben during the celebration. Another Jedi appears. Forgiveness and gratefulness is received.


**Thank You, Luke**

**Summary: At the end of ROTJ, there was another Force Ghost that appeared to Luke. A ghost that Old Ben seemed uncharacteristically pleased to see.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or get money off of writing this. If I did, I might not be on this site, but making that money…**

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Luke walked across the bridge, smiling when he caught sight of his sister waiting for him. He pushed all of his despair of losing his father away into the Force. Now was the time for celebration. Music, dancing, laughing…the dark air was filled with it. He could feel everyone's joy and relief in the Force, washing over him like a blanket. The Force felt so different now. Without the presence of the Dark Side, it felt less burdened and more lightened.

He quickly embraced his sister. "Leia," he whispered into her ear in relief.

She pulled back and smiled, showing her own relief at his survival. "Luke." Her brown eyes were bright with delight, happy and carefree for the first time since they met all those years ago.

He looked over her head and saw Han Solo. He reached over Leia and pulled Han into a hug. He felt the older man pat his back. "You gave us a scare, kid, running off like that," he said before pulling back.

Luke chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry." He moved aside as Leia came up and hugged Han's arm. She leaned her head on his shoulder, her smile never sipping from her face. He was glad to see his sister so happy and relieved she had picked a good man to be with. Luke couldn't have chosen a better man for his twin sister. Despite the fact she had chosen a former smuggler.

The three of them turned and faced the dancing Ewoks. Chewy was doing…something with his feet. Luke watched in amusement at the wookiee's attempt at dancing. He chuckled and shook his head. He then spotted Wedge Antilles standing above the small furry Ewoks on the far side of the room. He was laughing along with another member of the Rogue Squadron. He quickly left his friend's side to greet him.

"Wedge!"

Wedge turned and laughed in relieved greeting. "Luke!" They hugged. "I thought the worst when I didn't see you earlier," he said after pulling away.

"Sorry. I had something to take care of," he answered. He grinned. "I'm so glad you made it."

Wedge chuckled. "That makes both of us." His eyes glanced around the tree hut. "Pardon me, Luke. I see another friend who I thought perished."

Luke nodded. "It's alright." He watched Wedge head towards another pilot before walking back over to where Han and Leia still stood. He greeted Chewie and other Rebels on the way. When he reached his sister and friend, he found himself walking pass them, towards the doorway. Something pulled him there. A feeling in the Force.

He leaned against the frame and glanced out into the night. His eyes lit up when he saw two familiar faces. Yoda was sitting on a wooden railing and Ben stood next to him. They gave him proud smiles. Ben then glanced over and Luke followed his gaze to a man who appeared on the other side of Yoda. The man and Ben smiled at each other before he turned to Luke. His eyes seemed to sparkle with pride and happiness. Luke smiled, knowing who it was. Anakin Skywalker, his father. It helped him to see his father looking happy next to his old friends. He was at peace now.

Arms wrapped around him and he didn't have to look to know it was his sister. He reached up his hand to clinch hers, glad to have her with him. She was his family. He glanced down at her and grinned in return of her smile. He glanced back up at the three Force ghost for one last smile. He was about to turn to go when another figure appeared behind Yoda. Luke paused, trying to place him, but he had never seen him before. He was a broad figure with long hair; a part of his hair was pulled back away from his face. He had a short beard around his mouth. He was tall. His eyes gleamed with wisdom and gratitude.

"Luke? What do you see?" Leia whispered as she glanced around curiously. Her lack of training in the Force prevented her from seeing the four Force ghosts.

Luke didn't answer her question. He continued to watch curiously as his father realize there was someone else with them. He turned and Luke saw his eyes lit up with pleased surprise. His body seemed to stiffen in his shock. He grinned with pleasure. The unknown man reached over and gave his father a comforting squeeze on his shoulder. He gave a greeting nod in his direction, his mouth twitching into a half smile. His eyes, though, were gleaming with pride and forgiveness.

Ben seemed to realize Anakin was distracted by something. He frowned in confusion before turning as well. He seemed to freeze when he caught sight of the man. Before Luke's very eyes, Ben seemed to de-age to that of a young man in his early or mid-twenties. He became Obi-Wan Kenobi in his eyes, a young Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan blinked back sparkling tears.

The man gave Obi-Wan his full attention. He smiled at Obi-Wan and held out a hand to him. To Luke's surprise, Obi-Wan gave a big smile and almost jumped into the man's awaiting arms. The man returned the hug in full. Their hug was tight and held a deep past that spoke of affection.

Yoda's smile seemed to widen as he silently gave the two their space, but Luke barely noticed. His attention was still on the hugging pair.

The man glanced at Luke over Obi-Wan's head. He smiled at him. A baritone voice echoed in his head. "_Thank you, Luke, for bringing him home to me_." Luke blinked in surprise and gave the man a look. The man titled his head in a grateful nod, silently informing Luke he was the one that had spoken into his mind. "_You saved us all_," the man said as he glanced to the left.

Curious to what the man wanted him to see, Luke slipped out of Leia's grasp and entered the night air. He looked over at the man again for direction and the man nodded to the side. Luke grasped the wooden railing and glanced down at the forest floor. His eyes widened as blue figures began to appear all over the ground below. Force ghosts, so many Force ghosts. They stared up at him with grateful applause.

"_All those who lost their lives in the Jedi Purge and beyond. They are now able to rest in peace because of you_," the man said in to his head.

"Luke? What is it?" Leia whispered by his side.

Luke couldn't tear his eyes away from them as he answered quietly, "Jedi. I see the Jedi of the past." He turned back to the man. Obi-Wan was leaning into the comfort of the man's arm, looking more content then he had ever seen him. He gave Luke a smile. It looked odd to Luke to see his mentor look so young and refreshed. His father was standing by the railing, looking down at all those fallen Jedi, most he had killed himself. He turned to his son and smiled in contentment. His sins having been washed away and forgiven. Luke returned the smile, his own relief showing through it.

The sound of giggling children pulled Luke's attention back to the entrance of the tree hut. A couple of young children, blue and transparent, were running out of the hut. Their smiling, laughing faces caught Luke's sparkling eye as they ran by him. He followed them with his eyes as they ran to Yoda. The old Master seemed overjoyed to see them. He gave them a big happy smile and embraced them. Luke chuckled as they seemed to jump all over him in their delight to see him. Yoda glanced over their hopping shoulders and grinned at Luke. They slowly began to fade away. Luke stole a glance below and saw the others disappearing too.

When he glanced back over, there were only three Force ghosts present, his father, the unknown ghost, and Obi-Wan. Anakin Skywalker had stepped back until he was standing on the other side of the unknown Jedi. The Jedi placed one hand on his father's shoulder and the other one on Obi-Wan's.

"_Thank you, Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin Skywalker_." He once again heard the man say before the three disappeared into the Force.

* * *

A few months later, Luke was going over left over data in the ruins of the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he put another fuzzy datachip in the discard pile that had been growing increasingly larger. It didn't look like the Emperor left much information about the Jedi, not that Luke was surprised. He sighed and glanced over to the small pile of datachips that were good. He had found interesting information about the history of the Jedi, although the information came in pieces and there were big gaps missing. There were also some information about lightsaber forms of combat and Luke had managed to scourge up a part of a mission report or two. There wasn't much more he had been able to get off the datachips.

Luke stood up and stumbled over fallen shelves and debris. The Temple looked very eerie. It didn't matter whether it was night or day. The lights weren't working and he had to pry open the doors manually. Without the electricity working, it left the building in the dark. He was only able to work during the daylight hours, using the light coming in from the windows and the holes in the walls and ceiling. To make it even creepier, the wind would whistle through the building like the cries of the dead calling out in pain.

Luke pushed aside a broken shelf and knelt down to go through the discarded datachips lying around. He picked up one that was broken in half and tossed it aside. He picked up a few that looked intact and made his way back over to his working station. It was a little spot on the floor just below a hole in the ceiling. He sat back down and picked up his datapad. He dropped the small pile of datachips in front him and began checking to see if they worked.

He went through three before he came to one that did not looked damaged at all, not a scratch or a dent. As he studied it closely, he, surprisingly, couldn't even find a scuff mark. It was the first completely undamaged chip he came across so far. He excitedly placed the chip into his datapad, only to be disappointed when he came across a security wall. There was no way he could guess the password. He placed the pad down and closed his eyes, feeling his weariness of the slowly passing day.

"Luke?" He heard Leia call out from the corridor. Her voice echoed the deserted corridors.

Luke turned his head to the open doorway. "I'm in the archives, Leia!" he called back. His own voice echoed off the walls of the building.

He heard her footsteps clicking throughout the abandoned Temple before she appeared in the doorway. She quickly spotted him and carefully made her way over the debris. She didn't speak until she was kneeling next to him. "You've been in here all day, Luke, and all of yesterday and the day before that. I haven't seen you in nearly a week." She glanced down at the piles of datachips around them. "I've been worried."

Luke gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry, sister." He sighed and frowned. "I've been trying to learn more about the Jedi without too much success." He waved to the datapad. "I ran across something that might contain a lot, but there's a security wall."

Leia picked up the datapad with curiosity and glanced at it. "A security wall? What security wall?"

Confused, Luke took the pad from her and glanced at it. As Leia saw, there was no longer a security wall hiding the information. The page showed the last thing someone had looked up before being put away. There was a picture of an elderly Jedi, strong and powerful. The name was listed next to the photo in bold letters, Aenon Jurtis. There were a few paragraphs of background information and something about a midichlorian count of 14,200. That was something Luke hoped to find more information on. There was a list of padawans and the name of the Jedi who taught him. He stared at the word "padawan" wondering what it meant.

He pushed the button to go the next page. It had another photo of someone different and their background information. He gasped excitedly when he realized what he came across. "Leia!" he said as he went through page after page.

"What is it? What did you find?" she asked scooting over to see. She leaned over his shoulder and stared down at the datapad.

"It's a record of all the past Jedi!" He paused. "Well, it hasn't been updated since the Purge. It wouldn't include those Jedi," he corrected. He continued to click through the pages as he spoke. His eyes were glued to the screen. "These are Jedi who everyone forgot, who would have remained forgotten if I hadn't stumbled across it. They need to be remembered and known for their heroic deeds. After everything they done for the Republic, they should be remembered and, yet, they were forgotten."

He suddenly paused as he passed a familiar looking face. He went back to the page and froze. The face was kind, his eyes were blue. He had long brown, graying hair that was pulled back away from his face. He had a short beard around his mouth. "It's him," Luke whispered.

Leia blinked. "Who is he?" she asked softly.

Luke spared her a quick glanced before staring at the page again. "That's the man who appeared with our father and Ben." He read the name. "Master Qui-Gon Jinn."

"How is he connected to General Kenobi?" She purposely left out their father's name. Luke didn't argue. He knew she couldn't get pass her family relation to the man she only knew as Darth Vader. He didn't push her.

"I don't know," he said in response to her question. He began going over the background information. "Padawans: Feemor, Xanatos, and Obi-Wan Kenobi," he pointed out.

"What is a padawan?" Leia asked.

Luke shook his head. "I…I don't…" he paused in thought. "A student, perhaps?"

"Qui-Gon Jinn was General Kenobi's teacher?"

Luke nodded. "Yes, that sounds right."

"How was he connected to…?" she stopped, unsure how to address her mortal enemy that turned out to be her biological father.

Luckily, Luke seemed to be able to pick up on her train of thought without her needing to say it. "I don't know. It doesn't say he was his student. Maybe he just knew him through Ben. Ben did train him and Qui-Gon trained Ben." He started skimming the background information some more for the answer. He didn't come across it until near the end of the page. "He discovered our father on Tatooine when he was nine. He was a slave!" he exclaimed in shock.

"That explains a lot," Leia muttered to herself.

He gave his sister a look before he continued reading. "Qui-Gon Jinn was the one who first stumbled across the Sith since it was believed they were extinct. He died fighting one." Luke shook his head, pleased to finally know who the mysterious Jedi was. He seemed to be a very interesting Jedi. Luke wished he was able to meet him. He took him as the ideal Jedi.

"We wouldn't have been here if it wasn't for him," Luke said in realization. He glanced down at his sister's brown eyes. "We owe him our lives." He glanced back at the photo of Qui-Gon Jinn. "He thanked me for bringing the martyred Jedi peace, but I'm the one who should be thanking him. For finding father, freeing him, and making him a Jedi."

Leia reached out and placed a hand over the photo on the screen. "There wouldn't be a Vader if he hadn't found him."

Luke sighed and touched her hand. "Vader wasn't the real threat, Leia, you know that. The Emperor would have still taken over and there wouldn't be anyone able to stop him, not me, you, or our father."

She sighed resignedly. "I know." She glanced back at the screen. "Thank you, Qui-Gon Jinn."

Luke nodded in agreement. "Yes, thank you, Master Jinn." A warm feeling of acknowledgement washed over him and he knew it was from the old Jedi Master. He smiled and put the datapad away. He turned to his sister. "Let's go see what Han and Chewie is doing right now."

They left the room together, laughing like the siblings they were. Once they were out of sight, two figures appeared. "You didn't need to open up the security wall, little one."

The younger of the two glanced at his mentor. "You should be known to Luke. I wanted him to know the man who gave me so much. I didn't want your name to become lost."

"I didn't do what I did for glory," the older man said.

"That is why you deserve it, Master. You've done so much, but are still modest. You didn't do it for fame, but because you wanted too."

The older man laughed. "You have become wise, my young padawan. I've never been so proud." The man placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Let us return home, Obi-Wan."

"Yes, Master Qui-Gon."

Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi disappeared.

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**Not my best work, but I wanted more Qui-Gon and Luke stories on this site and something kind of like this has been stuck in my head for awhile!**

**What do you think of it?**


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